"Ah, okay then."

Something is going on with Isabella. Possibly shock over finding out her country is run by people controlling a spaceship to pretend to be god and not an actual god.

"I'm uh, sorry that you didn't have a chance to learn about the ship prior to volunteering for this mission."

"Uh. Thank you."

Lucien shows her to her quarters.

"We'll be leaving in a few hours for Amalien space. If you'd like you can join on the bridge for when we jump to warp - it's a bit of a spectacle." he says, indicating the direction of the bridge.

"Thank you, will someone be able to let me know when that is?"

Someone can do that!

She'll watch the stars blur.

They even get a bit rainbow when the jump starts! This is actually a result of how out of date their ship is but it's still pretty.

Daily life on the ship on a trip this long isn't extremely interesting by the crew's standards - they're used to stops every few days. There's a bulk food synthesizer that is usd to provide an adequate buffet with shifting recipes - she can suggest dishes she'd like and they'll add it into the rotation. One of the common spaces is used as a gym for most of the day and as a movie theater at night (the crew tends towards movies that are over the top even by the standards of the culture they came from). A few crew members gather after meals to play a card game with collectible cards (they'll spot her some if she'd like). At the end of the first week Officer Graft digs up some old augmented reality headsets and organises a tournament that's a cross between laser tag and tennis, with most of the ship used as the arena. 

She's also free to peruse the extremely thorough multimedia library they keep onboard, or to shadow some of the crew members as they go about their duties. Lucien is the only person who looks as young as he does on the ship.

Isabella cannot participate in a cross between laser tag and tennis, but she will try all these other things. Movies are fascinating, the books are amazing, and she clearly has a lot to catch up on.

She'll put a couple of her favorite foods into the replicator.

The replicator is better at generating food in bulk the specific orders so everyone on the ship geta chance to taste her favorites - some enjoy them enough to suggest their own variants of her dishes that combine them with other cuisines.

A week and a half into the journey Lucien stops by her table at dinner.

"We're going to be passing by a planet we contacted a couple of years ago soon - I was thinking it would be good to check in on the away team we left their and the planet's friendly enough that we can hopefully stretch our legs. Or in your case wings too I guess? If you'd like the chance to fly before we get to Amalien Command in another week."

"I would love the chance to fly, I haven't gone this long without since I last injured a wing. What's the place like?"

"Lower tech level than your planet, but more populated - a few hundred million people. They have some of the most beautiful architecture I've seen - lots of giant elegant arches - they got real lucky on the geology front which made stone construction much easier. They ritually sacrifice consenting members of their population for big celebrations, but they know we find it upsetting and keep it out of sight out of politeness."

"Why do they do that?"

"Lots of cultures develop ways to die that seem high status and important to people - often it's death in combat but in this case it's death in celebratory ritual."  

"Death in combat is... not a useful comparison for me."

"My culture didn't have any recorded deaths at all until nearly a century ago - we don't really think there's a good way to die and given more options most cultures seem to agree with us."

"I'm not entirely certain what a good comparison for you would be - are there any deaths that are seen as particularly heroic in your history?"

"Well, I mean, if you die attempting to save someone from, I don't know, drowning, that would certainly be well-regarded?"

"Makes sense - I think dying to protect people is a pretty good way to die if you have to."

"The Palelle for some reason think dying in order to mark a big celebration gives you some of the credit for that celebration and thus is a good way to die. The Amalien Alliance away team on the planet has been trying to figure out ways to discourage it but it's not as high priority as curing infectious diseases or increasing robustness to extreme weather."

"Uh, your planet is an extreme outlier relative to apparent tech level on those things."

"I gather nobody else has a way to just sing away the storms."

"No."

"I was never told this explicitly but I'm guessing that's a function of the ship and not some other piece of advanced technology?"

Nod.

"I wonder if it's replicable - most of the techniques we have for dealing with weather are either very expensive and slow, or just treat the effects of the weather - crops that grow well during droughts, irrigation, sturdy construction techniques and such."

"Well, our ancestors must have put the ship together somehow." She flicks some imaginary dust off her feathers.

Lucien can change the subject.

A few days later they touch down on the planet.

The inhabitants are unusually stout for humanoids and have a second smaller pair of vestigial arms. They are quite happy to see the Amaliens! They have a large banquet prepared with the new crops they've planted and a tour of medical facilities and last (but clearly the thing they are most proud of) a room lit only by lightbulbs. They have Lucien flip the switch.

Isabella is provided with a wristband by the Amaliens that will track her location and status (and has a panic button) and told it's safe to fly around while they are here for the next several hours - though she should avoid the mountainous regions.